Chapter Text
Clutching Harry to her chest, Lily silently pressed herself against the wall as Voldemort swept past. Even hidden beneath the invisibility cloak, she didn’t dare move until the Dark Lord was halfway up the stairs, intent on making his way to the nursery.
A muffled sob tried to escape her at the sight of James lying lifeless on the floor, but Lily held it back, determined to escape alive. She hurried into the kitchen, pausing just long enough to grab up both wands from the table - along with a device she’d put together just the day before. From upstairs came the sound of infuriated yelling and crashing, stating very clearly that Voldemort was hunting a bit more violently for her and Harry.
Lily rushed outside, activating the detonator in her hand as soon as her feet cleared the back gate.
Instantly, the house behind her exploded, the three bombs hidden in the walls tearing it to pieces within seconds and filling the surrounding air with flaming shrapnel. Lily was nearly bowled over from the force of the shockwave, and felt a few bits of flying metal nick her as they went by. For a brief moment, she’d have sworn hearing an anguished, furious scream, but the woman passed it off as her imagination - not even Voldemort could have survived that blast.
Leaving the boundaries of the now-burning property behind, Lily apparated away the instant she’d cleared the protective wards. She pulled the cloak back closed, then took a few minutes to calm both herself and the stressed infant in her arms.
Around them were rows of rather plain muggle houses, all appearing exactly the same, down to the paint schemes and flower boxes. It wasn’t Lily’s first choice of hideaways, but after being so clearly betrayed by Peter, she was reluctant to trust anyone in the Wizarding World at the moment. With slow, hesitant steps, the woman approached the house that matched an address she’d made sure to memorize months before: Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey.
She took a moment to take off the invisibility cloak, wrapping it up into a shimmering bundle that she clutched with the same hand supporting Harry. Then, it was a simple matter of reaching up and pushing the doorbell.
A few minutes later, there came the sound of irritated muttering as someone approached the door. “What?” Petunia snapped as she pulled it open, only to freeze in shock upon seeing who it was.
“Tuney,” Lily softly pleaded. “M-may we come in?”
Only the fact that she was still stunned and running on automatic manners had the other woman stepping back, giving her long estranged sister room to enter. Then, almost as if a switch had been flipped, she returned to her normal state.
“Why are you here?” Petunia hissed, scanning the street outside before closing the door. “I’ve said it time and again, I don’t want to- to- Lily?” Her angry tirade faded away at the absolutely broken expression on her sister’s face, tears silently coursing down and soaking the top of her singed sweater. “What is it?”
“He’s dead,” she finally managed to whisper. “James is dead.”
Petunia struggled with her conflicting emotions for a few minutes before finally letting out a resigned sigh. “I’m sorry.” Numbly, Lily just nodded, and allowed herself to be steered in the direction of the kitchen.
“Don’t think I’m being friendly,” Petunia warned her as she got a pot of tea started. “Because I don’t want to know. Not what happened, or what’s been going on, and certainly not what you plan to do now. All I need you to tell me is whether I ought to expect any more of those freaks to show up at my door.”
“I wouldn’t have come here if there was a chance of being followed.” Lily said quietly. “In fact, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll think we’re all dead...”
“Why?”
“I blew the house up, to kill the monster inside. It’s all gone.”
Petunia paused. “You blew up- well, I hope you haven’t come here looking for charity, because Vernon and I-”
“Just one night.” Eyes going distant, Lily tried to reassure her. “Just until morning. I c-can’t trust anyone besides you right now, Tuney.” Reluctantly, the other woman turned to face her.
“I’d like to know what I did to deserve that particular honor.” She sniffed, trying not to let the confusion show through.
“I know we’ve fought - that you can’t stand me anymore - but if nothing else I know you wouldn’t try to kill me.”
“And you can’t say the same for any of your freaky friends now?”
“I don’t know,” Lily whispered, the tears making a reappearance. “I don’t know. One of them betrayed us - I can’t decide right now if the others would or not.”
Petunia set the teacup in front of her, sighed, and carefully eased Harry out of her sister’s arms, tutting at the pair of narrow slashes across his right cheek, which had already closed up and begun to scab over. “Drink. Clearly you’re in no shape to decide anything at the moment. You and the baby can stay until morning, but then you’ll have to be gone by the time Vernon leaves for work.”
“Thank you, Tuney.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Escape
Crashing after her emotional breakdown, Lily slept like dead until dawn. That was when Petunia knocked harshly on the door, waking Harry, whose burbles then roused his mother. Lily forced herself upright, putting the memories of the previous night behind her for the meantime, and checked to make sure she had everything: the wands. The cloak. And Harry.
She nearly burst into tears again, thinking of all their belongings that had been lost, but firmly reminded herself that this wasn’t the time.
Petunia knocked again just before her sister could disapparate away. “There’s toast and eggs if you want to eat before you go.” Carefully hiding her smile, Lily opened up the door and nodded her thanks. Downstairs, she quickly downed the plate of food, Petunia once again holding Harry for her. This time, though, little Dudley was present as well, and made grabby gestures at his cousin. Petunia sighed and walked around the table so that the two boys could study each other.
Harry reached out a hand and tapped Dudley’s chubby cheek, which set both of them off giggling. Their mothers each smiled at the sight, before Lily finished eating and Petunia returned to her usual sour self. The redhead was given a paper sack with some sandwiches, apples and baby food in it, and then promptly shown to the back door.
“Thank you, Tuney. We won’t bother you again.” Lily promised.
Her sister glanced over to where Dudley was still giggling, and sighed. “Well... Maybe you can visit once in awhile. But send a letter first - and not by those freaky owls, understand?”
“Got it.” She waited until Petunia had closed the door and moved away, then quickly disapparated.
Thinking much more clearly after some sleep, Lily headed to the home of the only people she could guarantee weren’t about to turn traitor on her - Frank and Alice Longbottom. The couple had gone into hiding themselves, as the prophecy Dumbledore was so concerned over had the potential to apply to their son Neville as well as her Harry.
Keeping the invisibility cloak close at hand, she headed down an empty country lane, towards a copse of trees that the road passed through. Carefully placed charms made the place indistinguishable to muggles, but magical folk could easily spot the old abandoned cottage sitting within.
And only those with the correct password could step past the gate, and the accompanying wards, to see that it wasn’t so abandoned after all.
“Anyone home?” Lily called out as she crossed the small yard, perfectly able to hear the startled thumps from inside. A moment later the door was yanked open, revealing a shocked Alice.
“Oh my Merlin- LILY!” Seconds later, the woman pulled her old friend and classmate into a tight embrace - much more sisterly and welcoming than Petunia had been the night before. “Where have you been? Are you and James and Harry alright? We just got the Prophet this morning, they’re saying that the house at Godric’s Hollow had been attacked and blown up, but there wasn’t a Dark Mark in the sky-”
“We’ve been understandably upset, as I’m sure you can gather.” Frank mentioned as he appeared in the doorway as well. “What the hell happened?”
“James is dead.”
Those three words led to her being pulled inside, Harry immediately taken and placed with Neville on the playmat, and Lily sat down at the kitchen table with a concerned Longbottom on either side of her.
“What happened?” Frank asked again, his wand summoning an extra cup of tea.
Gathering her Gryffindor courage, Lily stuttered her way through an explanation, starting with the decision a month prior about switching Secret Keepers at the last minute from Sirius to Peter, finishing up with her brief reunion with Petunia after the attack.
“And here I thought your choice to use some muggle defenses was over the top.” Alice tried to joke once her friend had finished. Lily snorted.
“Hardly. Though I doubt anyone’s going to believe the Dark Lord was done in by a few packages of homemade bombs put together from several dozen fireworks.”
“You may have a point there.” Frank said mildly, his gaze focused on the pair of playing boys. “Lily... Where do you plan on going now?”
Her sigh was all the response that they needed. Alice immediately went to the bedroom, coming back with a resized change of clothes that she sent Lily into the bathroom with. Similarly, Frank pulled out another of Neville’s onesies, quickly changing Harry into the clean garment. He paused for half a moment while doing so, studying the new shrapnel scars on the infant’s face. Harry merely gazed at him solemnly, before whining, which quickly snapped the man back to what he was doing.
By the time Lily reappeared, Alice had arranged quill and ink along with several pieces of parchment on the table. “I wasn’t sure how many people you needed to let know you were still alive,” she explained.
“Gringotts, first. Last thing I need is them enacting our will while we’re still- while I’m still alive.” Lily said firmly. “Minerva, too, she doesn’t deserve to be devastated by this. Maybe Sev as well... I’ll hold off on Remus until later, he’ll still be recovering from the full moon...”
“What about Sirius? And the Headmaster?”
“I- I don’t want to think ill of Sirius, but...”
“But he was the one who insisted on switching Keepers.” Lily didn’t respond to Frank’s statement, merely bowing her head over the table. “Alright, but what about Dumbledore?”
“...I didn’t say it before, but... A few days ago, he asked James about the cloak, wanting to know if he could borrow it for study.” She looked up into her friends’ suddenly anxious faces. “James said no. If he hadn’t, Harry and I wouldn’t have made it out of the house alive. And I doubt that Dumbledore could have known, but now I can’t help but wonder, why did he ask then? Why would he ask at all? I just- I just don’t think I can bring myself to inform him, not right now at least.”
Alice and Frank shared an indecipherable look, before nodding in unison. “Right then. Let us know if you need anything else, alright? Since You-Know-Who’s gone, we’re planning on heading back to our own home in a day or two.”
Lily shook her head at that. “I’d wait a little longer if I were you - we still don’t know how many Death Eaters are out and about, and I bet the more fanatical of them aren’t going to simply back down now that their Lord is out of the picture.” Alice stiffened, as Frank gained a dark expression.
“Duly noted.” He said. “We’ll wait until the Ministry’s restored a bit more order, then.” With that, the three of them set to their tasks.
-Escape-
At precisely four o’clock that afternoon, another guest arrived on the hidden property. Minerva McGonagall barely slowed down as she passed through the gate, and then the door opened by Frank, only coming to a stop once she’d caught hold of Lily and pulled the younger woman into a tight hug.
“I’m sorry,” the Hogwarts professor whispered to her. “I’m so, so sorry, Lily.”
“It’s not your fault, Minerva.” The redhead tried to give her a watery smile, but couldn’t quite pull it off. Alice guided them over to the sofa, where the pair sat and continued to hold onto one another. Lily began to tell her story again, finding it easier the second time around, especially as Minerva remained quiet until the very end.
And then the old witch exploded into fury.
Everyone, even the two infants, watched in awe as the grey-haired woman leapt to her feet and began to pace back and forth, spewing all manner of curses in both English and Gaelic. After several minutes of this, Minerva finally slowed down enough to recover herself.
“I’m going to talk to Albus about this.” She growled. “But first, I’m going to find both Sirius and Peter and Merlin help them if I have to fight those boys.”
Silently, she gave Lily another hug, kissed both Harry and Neville on their foreheads, and then walked out the door still being held open by a stunned Frank.
“...Veeery glad I never messed up bad enough to get that serious a tongue-lashing from her in school.”
“You aren’t the only one,” Alice murmured to her husband. Lily just smiled fondly and shook her head.